


Not Your Reflection

by tigerlady (shetiger)



Category: White Collar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-29
Updated: 2010-09-29
Packaged: 2017-10-12 07:36:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/122496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shetiger/pseuds/tigerlady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Elizabeth wakes up, it's not in her own bed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Your Reflection

**Author's Note:**

> So back at the beginning of the year I signed up for the Sex Is Not The Enemy challenge, because I just love the idea behind the [site](http://sexisnottheenemy.tumblr.com/). (Link not worksafe!) But my prompt was [Doppelganger](http://sexisnottheenemy.tumblr.com/post/153007617). I had no ideas for it--until the day before the story was due. Needless to say, I didn't finish on time. ~4000 words.
> 
>  **Warnings:** Since span is disallowed, you will need to go [here](http://community.livejournal.com/tigerrrific/35265.html) to look at the warnings and/or pairings for this story. Click and highlight to read.

Elizabeth wakes up with sticky eyes and the worst cotton mouth since Peter's crew crashed her soiree at the MOMA and he tried to make it up to her with a case of confiscated Chianti. She brings her right hand up and tries to rub some of the grit out of her eyes. It doesn't do much to ease the irritation, but at least she feels more awake. She starts to push herself up out of bed--and comes up short as a handcuff bracelet jerks tight against her left wrist.

"Peter," she growls, instinctively reaching for his name first, even though this is more Neal's style. She sighs and swings her legs around to the edge of the bed.

That's when she realizes it's not her bed. Not her bedroom.

"Peter?" she calls again, her voice shaking the slightest bit, but hey, that's okay. No one pulls a stupid prank like this on her and gets away without feeling a little guilt.

"I'm so sorry. When I said I needed to talk to you, I didn't think he'd actually drug you."

That voice is definitely not Peter's. Or Neal's. Elizabeth takes a deep breath and struggles up, pushing her left foot against the floor and tucking her right leg up on the mattress so she's got her back mostly to the headboard. The woman at the foot of the bed is dressed in a tight charcoal turtleneck and low-waisted jeans, a silver chain belt accenting her hips. Her long brunette hair hangs perfectly around her shoulders, a narrow swath tucked up over her left ear to show off a tasteful diamond stud. Her hands, perched on her hips, elegantly display her French-tipped nails. Elizabeth can't call her pretty, though, not with the cold look in her eyes and the flat expression on her face.

"Kate," she says, biting it off hard at the T like Peter always does. "What a surprise."

"Is it?" Kate moves to Elizabeth's side of the bed, standing just outside her reach. Elizabeth could probably kick her, but she holds the urge in check for now. "Surely it can't be that unexpected that I'd want to talk to you."

"Why, so you can get at Neal through me?" She tries to sound as sneering as possible, but there's a heart-trip of doubt that flattens the interrogative into something more like a worried statement.

Kate snorts. "I don't need to 'get' to Neal. He'll always be mine." She takes a step forward, knees almost straddling Elizabeth's leg. Elizabeth has to strain her neck to see Kate's face, but she's not about to give Kate the satisfaction of fleeing backwards. Not when anger is starting to burn in her belly.

"You're delusional." For Neal's sake at the very least, Elizabeth has always tried to keep a measure of understanding in reserve whenever Peter rants about Kate, going on and on about how bad she is for him, but the way Kate's lips barely lift as she stares down, not even looking Elizabeth in the eyes, makes it hard to understand why Neal ever felt anything for her. She has none of Neal's joyousness, none of his zest for life. Elizabeth shakes her head and reminds herself that she doesn't actually know anything about who Kate is. "I know you guys have been through a lot, but Neal's not going back to you."

The smirk widens, but somehow still fails at becoming a smile. "I know you're sleeping with him."

Elizabeth swallows. They've been really careful, which means that if Kate really knows, if she isn't just bluffing, then they've got a stalker problem again. Although, considering she is handcuffed to a bed in a strange hotel room, that might be the least of their problems.

Damn. Whatever drugs they gave her are making her slow.

"What if I am?" Elizabeth's neck is starting to hurt. She pulls her other leg up onto the bed, ignoring the fact that she has to brush against Kate's shin to do so, and shifts into a kneeling position. It mitigates the height difference, makes her feel less overwhelmed, but it's even weirder now because Kate doesn't step back. The two of them are so close they're pretty much breathing the same air, but Elizabeth just tosses her hair over her shoulder and shows Kate how a smile's really done. "I told you. Neal isn't going back to you."

"Tell yourself anything you want. But we both know why he's fucking you." Kate leans in, her hair swinging forward, tickling Elizabeth's cheek as she whispers into Elizabeth's ear. "You look like me."

Elizabeth rears back. The gloves are **so** coming off now. "Oh, honey. You are so blind, you have no idea."

"Oh, I know we're not quite twins, but don't worry. Neal's always had a taste for antiquities." She brings a hand up, and before Elizabeth can react, traces the crow's feet at her left eye. "He thinks everything gets better with age. Lucky for you, huh?"

It shouldn't burn. She knows that Kate's just trying to get to her, that her words are motivated more by jealousy than truth. And she knows that Neal finds her attractive. But it does burn, in the small corner of her mind that still wonders what's going to happen when his tracker comes off.

"Why are you doing this?" she asks, ignoring all of that. "Neal was devastated when he thought you'd died. If you want him back so much, why didn't you just drop all the games and comes see him?"

Kate snorts. "Please. Like I could have gotten within fifty feet of him without your husband on my ass."

That's undoubtedly true, but Elizabeth never needed Neal to teach her that the best way to spin a lie was stick to the truth. "Neal would have found a way to get around him."

Kate runs her finger down Elizabeth's cheek, from the edge of her cheekbone to the angle of her jaw. It sends a shiver down the back of her neck that she tries to hide, but Kate smiles. "Like he does for you?" She bends forward, her hair brushing against Elizabeth's face as she breathes into her ear. "Believe me, I know how much Neal likes his games. This is the best one yet."

Elizabeth nearly knocks her nose against Kate's as she tries to find room between them. "Oh, my God! You actually are crazy."

Kate makes a sourpuss frown. "You'd better hope you're wrong about that, don't you think?"

"Am I, though?" It's a mistake to taunt Kate, Elizabeth knows that, but she's been drugged, dragged out of her home, chained up, and insulted, and she's never been good at holding her tongue when she's backed into a corner. "Because you sure don't look rational from here."

"Fine. Try this on for size." Her hand comes up fast as a cobra strike. Elizabeth flinches back, but instead of getting slapped, she finds her head caged as those manicured fingers wind through her sleep-tangled hair and tug to the side. Before she can even think, Kate's biting her neck, high up behind her ear, in that one spot that always makes her go limp with need. Elizabeth tries to jerk free, but the best she can manage is to get Kate's lips dragging across her neck, sending unwilling goosebumps down her upper arm. She finally gets her free hand up and pushes at Kate's chest, right under her throat, but she's mentally and physically off-balance. It's more Kate's decision than any force Elizabeth's able to muster that has her stepping back.

"What the hell?" she gasps out. She swipes at her neck several times, but even though she manages to dry the saliva off her skin the small hairs on the back of her neck just won't accept that it's over. "What the fucking hell?"

Kate's hair is slightly mussed and there's a flush on her cheekbones. "He does that, doesn't he? Bites you right there?"

Elizabeth keeps her face still and stares back without answering.

"I'm not crazy." Kate smirks. "That's my hot spot."

"Oh, right, because that spot doesn't do it for anyone else in the world." Elizabeth rolls her eyes.

Kate's eyes harden. "Does he touch you here?" she asks, stroking her nail up the underside of Elizabeth's upper arm before she can draw it away. Kate follows her forward, bringing one knee up on the bed. "Or here?"

Before the touch can land, Elizabeth snags Kate's wrist. She grips as tightly as she can, until the skin of both their hands blanches, but Kate doesn't even seem to notice. "Neal can touch me however he wants to," Elizabeth says. "You can't."

"I don't think you're in any position to dictate what I can or can't do." She yanks backwards on the arm Elizabeth has a hold of and, in the split second that Elizabeth's off-balance, shoves her hard. Elizabeth slides of her knees and crashes into the headboard, taking most of the force on her left shoulder. Kate follows after her, planting her hands on the headboard on either side of Elizabeth's head so that she's looming over her. "Don't you know? Whatever belongs to Neal? Belongs to me."

And then Kate kisses her. Elizabeth thrashes her head about, knocking into the headboard a few times, but Kate keeps following, her mouth moving cruelly until Elizabeth can taste blood. Kate's lips finally slide up Elizabeth's cheek, dawdling right over her beauty mark where Neal likes to kiss her, before Kate moves up to laugh in Elizabeth's ear.

"Does he cuckold Peter in his own bed?" she whispers. "I bet that's his favorite part."

Elizabeth stops trying to get away. She takes a few centering breaths, then tips her head back a fraction, just so that her lips can meet Kate's ear in the same way. "You really want to know what he does?"

Kate freezes. She slowly pushes away from the headboard until their faces are no longer pressed together. Elizabeth isn't sure what's behind Kate's _games_ , whether she's doing this because she honestly misses Neal or because she misses controlling him, but it's obvious that Elizabeth's finally made the right play to intrigue her.

"What--?"

"You're right," Elizabeth says as she pushes herself back up onto her knees. She reaches out, towards the hotspot on Kate's neck, and Kate lets her. "He loves to bite me here. He'd spend all night there, if I let him."

Kate nods slowly. Her eyes have gone dark, almost glassy. Elizabeth strokes with a little more pressure. "It's what I like," Kate says. "He always wants to please me."

The way she says it makes Elizabeth's skin creep. Her eyes prickle with the need to cry for Neal, but she clenches her jaw and pushes that away. She drops her hand down, running her finger along the inside of Kate's upper arm. "He knows just how to use his hands."

"He's an artist," Kate says, like that explains it, but Elizabeth thinks it's far too limiting to describe all that Neal is. So much of Neal's genius comes from the way he can peer into anyone's heart to see what they really want. Elizabeth tries to channel some of his talent right now.

"He does this, too," Elizabeth says, copying Kate's earlier move and grabbing her by the hair. It's not something Neal's ever done with her, not like this, but Kate gasps and drops her head back into Elizabeth's hand. "You love that, don't you?"

"Don't stop." Kate's breathing hard now, chest rising fast. Elizabeth feels a curl of arousal, more from the sudden switch in control than any desire for Kate. It's sick, but she goes with it, letting her body give her power.

"I won't," Elizabeth growls. There's hardly any room, but she manages to yank Kate to the side and down, using her grip on Kate's head to steer her flat on her back before she runs out of shoulder space and has to let go. Elizabeth twists under her own arm and straddles Kate before she can fight back--not that she does.

Elizabeth's stuck for a moment, uncertain of what to do next.

"What else?" Kate asks. She's obviously asking for more, like she'd planned all along that this would turn into some freaky sex game. Elizabeth doesn't want to give in, but she doesn't want to give up the upper hand, either.

She's guessing now. She and Neal have never played games like this. Oh, they've done other things, but every time she's pushed for something in this kind of territory, he's tensed up. It's pretty obvious why.

"I think you know already," Elizabeth says. She grabs Kate's right wrist and pushes it down against the pillow. The stretch is a little too much, so she shifts so she has one knee between Kate's thighs.

Kate whimpers. Elizabeth glances down, and wow, yeah, all she has to do is move her knee a little--

Kate groans this time. She rolls her hips, working her crotch against Elizabeth's knee. It makes her more angry than creeped out, that Kate thinks she can have this, can get away with treating Elizabeth and everybody else in her life like toys. She lifts her knee out of range.

Kate's eyes open. She doesn't look happy.

"Did I say you could do that?" Elizabeth asks. She's not sure who she's channeling--some dominatrix out of a bad romance book from her college years, probably--but it works.

"Please," Kate says, her eyelids dipping downward. Elizabeth leans in again, this time with her thigh pressing tight against Kate's pubic bone.

"Never forget who's in charge," Elizabeth hisses. She thinks maybe she's gone to far, but Kate just arches up into her. Her hips rock again, and Elizabeth lets her. Distantly she hears a soft click, like a door opening, and her heart thuds with hope.

"Well, well. What do we have we here?"

Her hope shatters like a cube of ice. Elizabeth knows that smug voice. Her muscles are clenching with fury before she even turns to see his face. Fowler looks surprised for a second, but then he brings his gun up and aims it at her.

"I don't think this is exactly how it's supposed to go. Get off of her." He points with a lift of his chin, not his gun, and for the first time since she woke up, the fear she's been holding back starts to edge towards terror. She hardly pays attention to Kate crawling off of the bed, her gaze frozen on Fowler and his gun.

He shakes his head. "Damn. I could hardly tell you two apart like that."

"That's the point," Kate mutters, but his curious eyebrow doesn't compel her to explain. Elizabeth wants to look back at her, see if Kate's as wrecked as she was seconds ago, but she doesn't dare. "You're early."

Fowler grimaces. "Caffrey's been nosing around the hotels in this area. It's only a matter of time before he cons our location out of someone. We need to go."

"Just Neal?" Kate asks.

"Don't even think about it," Fowler says. "You know Burke won't be far behind him."

Kate snorts. "Only if--"

Elizabeth doesn't even understand what's happening at first. It's just a wall of sound and the blur of Fowler and Kate going into motion. Then shouts resolve themselves into cries of _FBI! Put your hands up!_ and everything goes still.

Peter's there.

Her heart stops her throat as she realizes that not only is Fowler pointing his gun right at Peter, but somehow Kate's got one trained on him, too. Elizabeth wants to do something, anything, to keep him safe, but she doesn't dare move or make a noise, not wanting to distract him.

"Drop it, Fowler," he says. There's almost a smile on his lips, but the look in his eyes is like nothing she's ever seen. "You know how good my aim is, so let's not play around."

Fowler only hesitates a second before he tosses his gun onto the floor. Peter inches forward, stretching his foot out to kick it to the side, but he never lowers his gun. "Your turn, Kate. Your partner here isn't going to save you today."

Elizabeth wants to warn him not to underestimate her. Tell him that he doesn't have any idea how crazy she is. But Kate's slowly lowering her arm, letting the pistol dangle useless at her side.

"All the way down," Peter says, and she finally drops it. The rest of the agents swoop in. Peter's gaze flicks to her for just a couple of seconds, but it's enough. Elizabeth lets out the breath she was holding, and she sees his shoulders relax a fraction. He goes back to directing the scene, watching as Fowler and Kate are cuffed. Elizabeth watches him until she sees Neal slide into the room behind Jones.

"Elizabeth," he says, rushing to the bed. "Are you okay?"

"I am now," she says, smiling up at him. She tugs her left wrist, clanking the cuff against the rails of the headboard. "Can you get me out of this?"

"Of course." Neal stretches over her, but she doesn't watch him work. Instead she closes her eyes and relaxes back against the headboard, suddenly exhausted beyond belief. The smell of Neal's cologne is comforting, and she has to remind herself not to rub her face against his chest.

"There," Neal says, right as the pressure on her shoulder releases at last. She groans a little as she lets her arm drop to her lap. She opens her eyes in time to see him slipping something back into his inner jacket pocket--a bobby pin, maybe, but that seems too old-fashioned. He reaches for her hand and starts to massage her wrist with gentle fingers.

"You really need to teach me how to get out of those things," Elizabeth says. The noise in the room is growing, even as the tension leeches away, now that Kate and Fowler are firmly under control.

"First thing after we get out of here," Neal promises.

Elizabeth smiles at his sweet earnestness. "Maybe it can wait until tomorrow. I'm not sure how many more new experiences my brain can handle today."

"Right. Sorry." He's worked his way up to her elbow, now. His thumb strays across the inside of her upper arm and she shivers in response. She tries to pretend to herself that it's the same reaction she always has to his touch, but the way his eyebrows draw down and his eyes go gentle won't let her. "What did she do to you?" he asks, voice low but urgent.

Elizabeth shakes her head. "It wasn't..." It wasn't nothing, but it wasn't really something, either, and she doesn't want to talk about it. Definitely not here. "I'm fine."

"She got inside your head, didn't she?" Neal asks. It makes her catch her breath, not for what happened to her but for the absolute certainty in Neal's eyes. The certainty that says he's talking from experience. Before she can push him on that, the bed's shifting on her other side.

"El," Peter says, and then his arms are around her. She turns into him, twisting so that she can hug him as tightly as he's hugging her. She buries her face in his neck, and then when that's not enough she tucks down into his chest. They stay like that for maybe twenty seconds, but then Elizabeth pulls back.

"Get me out of here," she tells him. Peter just nods once, then unfolds off the bed and holds his hands out for her. She feels Neal's hand on her back, one more reassuring touch before she has to turn to face the chaos in the room. There are FBI agents everywhere, going over every inch of the suite with gloved hands. Fowler's gone, but Kate's at the door, ignoring her cuffed hands, ignoring the pair of agents at her side and Diana in front of her. She's just staring at Neal where he's sitting on the bed.

Neal's staring back.

Elizabeth moves around the bed until she can step between them, breaking their locked gazes. She can't decipher what's in Neal's eyes--pain and sadness, and a lot of anger, she thinks, but there's something else, too.

He raises his head, meeting Elizabeth's eyes. Helpless, that's what it is. He looks like a lost little boy who doesn't know how to fix the situation he created. Elizabeth reaches out, and thank God, he takes her hand. She urges him upward, and once he's standing, into a hug. He holds her tightly. She can't tell if he's staring at Kate over her shoulder. She hopes not.

And then she feels Peter behind her, stepping in close to guard her back. With him there, there's no way that Neal can be looking at Kate. If he's looking anywhere besides Elizabeth, it's at Peter.

"I'm okay," she whispers. Neal nods jerkily against her shoulder. He brushes a hidden kiss against her cheek as he draws back, and Elizabeth smiles at him.

Then she turns around, steps around Peter, and marches over towards Kate. The pair of agents who are guarding her are leading her towards the door, but one pleading look to Diana is all it takes. Elizabeth leans in, not close enough to touch this time but close enough to keep her words between them.

"Neal doesn't fuck me because I look like you," she whispers harshly. She holds her next words until she feels the tension running through Kate, until she's sure that the truth will hit exactly where she wants it to.

"He fucks me because that's the only way I'll let him fuck my husband."

Kate whips her head back. Her eyes are huge. Shocky. Elizabeth gives her the smuggest smile she can, then turns her head to nod over her shoulder. Kate's gaze snaps in that direction like a magnet being released to iron. Her cheeks redden, and Elizabeth finally turns to look at what she knows must be there.

Peter and Neal are watching them. It's nothing out of the ordinary at all. Just Peter with his hand on the back of Neal's neck, and Neal with his shoulder pressed close to Peter's chest.

Elizabeth steps away from Kate. "Never forget who's in charge," she says. She's not sure what to do with the satisfaction she feels when Kate looks at her and then slowly lowers her eyes. "Now, I think you have somewhere to be," she says, and the agents take her words as law.

She sags as they finally lead Kate away, exhausted.

"What did you say to her?" Peter asks. He and Neal have come forward together, bracketing her like there's still danger in the room.

Elizabeth shakes her head. "Just something she needed to hear." She makes sure her smile takes in both Peter and Neal. "Let's go home."

 

END


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